Dragon Ball Z: The Cactus Juice Saga
by M0b1uz
Summary: Torn, alone, the last of his kind, he roams the universe searching to restart his life...never thinkng he'd crash land onto an earth more unbelievably ludicrous than the one he just left. And he's not alone either. I do not own any character or names depicted in this story.
1. The Landing

The night sky filled the quiet forest with a shade of contentfull blue. Aang, Sokka, and Katara found a nice empty spot in the forestry to land Appa in and set up camp, and were now preparing to dowse the fire and receive some sleep for whatever tomarrow had for them.

As Katara unfirled her sleeping bag, she noticed her young airbending friend reclining atop his own bag, staring up into the stars with wonderous eyes.

"Is something bothering you, Aang?" Katara asked.

Aang's innocent eyes never left the sky."Do you think that we're alone in the universe?" he inquired.

" 'Course not," Sokka replied, quenching the camp fire with a bowl of water,"they're are plenty of other kids fighting the Fire Nation; that's where people get their inspiration from," he explained.

"No, what I mean is: do you think that, somewhere out there, beyond our world, beyond the stars, that there's...something else?" the Avatar asked, turning to the warrior.

"You mean like, another world?" Katara queried,"huh...I guess it could be possible..." the waterbender speculated, huddling in her arms, as winter wasn't quite through yet.

The team skeptic naturaly rolled his eyes as he prepared his own sleeping bag."Com'on; everyone knows there's nothing out there except stars and more stars," he declared.

"But how do we know?" the Avatar inquired,"It's not like anyone ever tried to check..."

"That's because it's impossible," Sokka explained, almost surprised by his friend's naivity," it's been proven there's no air in space; and if we could never survive up there, well, there you go..." the warrior finished, scooting into his bag and expecting to hear nothing more on the subject. But of course, his sister was far to optimistic to let it die.

"...What if there's a world where the Water Tribe is trying to take over..." the waterbender mused, causing one of her brother's eyelids to shoot open in annoyance.

"Or what if there's a world where there's no war or conflict at all?" Aang continued,"I'd love to see a place that..."

"And you will," Sokka began,"as soon as you master all four elements and defeat the Fire Lord; now stop daydreaming and go to sleep!" he nagged.

"Hang on," Katara teased,"how can Aang be _day_dreaming if it's night time? Wouldn't he just be dreaming regularly?"

"_whatever_..." the warrior groaned, squirming deeper into the sac.

The satisfied waterbender removed her shoes and descended into her bag."Goodnight, Aang, Sokka, Appa, and Momo."

"Goodnight."

_"goodnight..."_

The area rumbled with the bellow of a fully-grown sky bison, waking up the already asleep lemur.

The young nomad allowed his eyes to regress closed... seconds later having to open them again his lids were irritated by a sudden orange glow. The Avatar looked up to see a truly unexpected sight for anyone about to hit the hay."Oh my GOSH!"

"What? Is it a spider?" Sokka rose, franticly searching for the dasterdly arachnid.

"Bigger," Aang replied, pointing up to the giant fire ball that zoomed overhead, a heart stopping _boom_ resonating seconds later.

"What was that?" Katara wondered.

"Well, obviously, it was a fallen star," Sokka explained.

"I'm gonna go see," Aang annouced, hopping out of his pouch and dashing in the direction of the sound. Katara followed.

"And once again, we're running _toward _the potentialy bad thing," Sokka complained, getting up and following as well.

* * *

The kids stopped before a wide lake, with the enermous blazing orb halfway in.

"Okay, we saw the meteorite; can we go to bed now?" Sokka hoped.

Aang took a good look at the object, noticing a few details that normal boulders didn't have, such as what appeared to be broken windows, and...was that a door?

"It's a ship!" he announced.

"A ship?" Sokka inquired,"That fell from the sky?"

"You don't think that..." broached Katara.

"There's only one way to find out," Aang replied, bravely leaping into the sky and zipping down through the entrance, creating an air sheild to plow through the flames.

The Avatar looked around within the teatering, burning vessel, occasionaly met with a spark or plum that he instantly blew out.

"Hello?" he called,"Is anyone here? I'm here to save you!"

The Avatar's call was answered: a subtle grunt penatrating the boy's eardrums. The boy snapped to his left to see a gloved hand reaching beyond the smoke, which soon went limp.

"Don't worry! I'm the Avatar; I've got you!" Aang reasured, running to the arm and pulling out of the smoke a grown man covered in burnt marks. He strenuously dragged the unconscous body closer to the exit, eventually able to lean his head outside.

"Katara! He's too heavy! Make an ice bridge!" He commanded.

The girl nodded, assuming a stance, taking a deep breath, and exhaling a cloud of mist over the lake, creating a narrow path between them and the apparent ship.

The orb started to descend quicker than before, causing the airbender to breifly lose balance."Hurry! It's gaining water!"

"Okay, you reinforce the bridge while I help Aang carry the guy out," Sokka dictated.

"Alright," his sister replied.

The Water Tribe teen preceded to hastily but carefully cross the temporary bridge, while Katara widened it.

The Avatar managed to pull the man off the sinking vessel. Sokka made it to the struggling boy, who went around the body to pick up his legs while Sokka assumed the upper half. The two got out of the hotzone just in time before the whole thing collapsed beneath the water, chipping off of the bridge. It was when the boys passed over the dirt that an explosion erupted out of the lake.

Sokka sighed with satisfaction."Ahh, I knew this day was missing something..." he remarked.

* * *

The next morning, the kids resumed their journey to Omashu, carried by Appa, along with some extra "cargo".

"So, how is he?" Aang asked.

Sokka turned around to check for any signs of conscousness - there was none."Nope, still asleep."

"Oh, I can't wait till he wakes up!" Katara beamed,"Then we can talk about what life is like on another world..."

The optimist's brother rubbed the bridge between his eyes."Not this again. Just because a guy fell from the sky doesn't mean he's from another planet."

"Then how do you explain the big, round thing I found him in?" the Avatar inquired.

"Well, it was probably some kind of flying machine. It's not impossible; Teo's dad invented one," Sokka explained.

"That was a balloon, what we saw last night was a ship," Katara retorted,"Can you believe it? A ship that travels through space?"

"Or rather, _crashes_ through space..."Sokka corrected.

"Whatever; are you atleast keeping an eye on him?" the waterbender inquired.

The warrior crossed his arms, offended."I think my instincts would let me know if a body's about to roll off..." he replied, resting his hand on said body...which he soon found out was no longer there.

"Maybe if you actually _had_ instincts..." Katara muttered.

The sky was alive with the sound of a half-awake, blood-curdling scream; which was eventually cut off by Appa catching the man on his back and soaring back to his previous altitude in dramatic fashion.

"Well, atleast he's awake now..." Sokka reviewed.

"Was the backflip neccesary?" Katara inquired after almost falling off the bison herself.

"Just trying to make sure we stay in the right direction," the Air Nomad excused himself, shrugging.

Another grumble permeated the childrens ears.

The four (including Momo) huddled up curiously around the mysterious person. It was a grown man who looked somwhere in his mid-thirties, wearing some strange skin-tight blue suit that enveloped his entire body, with the exception of white gloves and boots, as well as his torso, which was covered in an extra layer of white armor with yellow breastplates; the front and back portionsseemed to be held together by a pair of golden segmented straps within each shoulder - though he was saved from a fire just last night, the clothing didn't appear to bear any damage save for the burnt marks (Katara could easily wash those out later). His hair was long and clumped into sharp stalks. The man slowly turned over on his back, showing his face to them while gunting all the way. His eyelids cracked open.

"Hello, do you the speak the human language?" Katara slowly asked.

The man seemed to ignore her as his attention reverted to the bald individual hanging above him.

"_N...Nappa_?"

"Don't worry, we have one..." Aang replied, moving away for a moment.

The man slugishly rose to a sitting position."...Wha...What happened? Where am I?" he struggled, still dazed. Although the man was now sitting upright, his hair stayed in the same position as when he lie down, sticking straight up.

"Your spaceship was destroyed in the crash; but we managed to save you," Katara explained, unknowingly earning a face-palm from her brother (that is, he face-palmed himself).

Aang came back, raising a vegetable to the man.

He stared at for a moment."...What's this for?" he inquired, a bit more edge to his tone.

"It's a cabbage," the smiling Avatar replied," you asked for a napa..."

The fully conscous man seemed to glare at the boy like he was retarded."Not _napa-_nappa_,_ you idiot, _Nappa-_nappa!" he exclaimed in anger, his voice deep and raspy.

Silence...

"_grr_, Nevermind..." he dissmissed, getting upto his feet and literaly jumping off the saddle.

The trio shared horrified glances before the Avatar to dash back to the reigns and perform the same stunt as before, making the flying bison loopty-loop in the air, divebomb, and stylishly catching the screaming man as the bison sailed back to standered bison-flying level.

"I guess you just didn't know you were on a flying bison!" Aang cried over the wind as the man struggled to push himself backup; as expected, his face wore a very confused expression.

"_What_? _Why didn't I..._wait, flying what?" he strenuously asked, then crawling to edge of the saddle, getting a good view of the creature's legs and manitee-like tail.

"Yep, last one in existence," added Sokka.

"Peh, I've seen weider..." he replied unimpressed; though he seemed to pause in confusion a moment later."Wait a second..." he vocalized, taking another peak down,"Green flora? Blue sky? I-I can't still be on Earth, can I?"he cried a bit dramaticly.

" 'On earth?" the Sokka repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

"That's impossible! I was out of this solar system at _least _two space-weeks ago!" he continued as if he were talking to the three.

The waterbender gasped with exitment."So you _are _from another planet! Ooh, this so amazing! We can exchange cultures, history, traditions..."

The young warrior stared at his sister as if _she_ were from another planet. "Katara, can you hear yourself? Just because we find some weird guy with weird clothes and a bad case of bed-head who crashes in a quote-on-quote 'flying ship' doesn't mean he totally just jumped off Appa again, didn't he...?" Sokka trailed off, realizing the man was no longer with them, prompting the Avatar to anxiously repeat the _same _maneuver a third time to save the once-more sreamimg man from peril, who now appeared more confounded than before.

"Could you stop doing that!? It stops being fun after the second time...!" Aang asked politely over the winds.

"What the...again? Why did I fall!?" he wondered aloud, clearly frustrated for some reason.

"Um, maybe I was too distracted with my sister to notice, but did you just _willfully_ jump off a flying bison when you were _aware_ you were in the sky?" Sokka observed.

The disgruntled man then attempted just that again, crawling to the end of Appa to leap off, until Sokka latched on to his shoulder."Wait! What're you trying to do, get up and fly on your own!?" Sokka demanded.

"YES!" the man roared out of pure anger, smacking Sokka's hand out of the way.

More silence...

"...Um, so are you, like, an airbender...Do you have airbenders on your planet?" Aang wondered.

The man blinked in confusion."er...w-well yeah, I guess that's a word for it...der...Will you brats shut up before I fry you to crisps!?" he snapped back.

"Woundn't you have to be a firebender to do that? You just said you were an airbender," Sokka reminded.

The man arose. "I'm not _any_ kind of bender, darnit! I'm a Saiyan!"

More silence...

"Yeah, that's right! And just as it happens, I'm the PRINCE of Saiyans!" he continued.

Sokka face-palmed again."Oh, of _course_, how could I have not known that?" he inquired sarcasticly,"Oh right! It could be due to the fact that I have no idea what that is!"

"So you _must _be from another world..." Katara misinterpeted.

"Well, I'm certrainly not from _thi..._" the man paused,"Wait, are you really telling me that you people've never heard of the Saiyans before?" he asked for clarafication

"We're just now discovering that there are other worlds besides ours," Aang pointed out.

The strange man blinked twice; and then, out of the blue, he started chuckling ominously with his arms folded and his eyes closed."Well then..." his eyes opened,"I guess it's time for little biology lesson..." he hissed, unfolding his arms and pearing over the bison; he saw a mountain."You see that mountain over there?" he raised his palm to it," Good, take a good look, because you're never going to see it again! Big-Bang...ATTACK!" he roared...

...Nothing happened...

The kids sat silently, waiting for the mass of earth to dissapear... it didn't...

"...I still see it..." Aang vocalized.

The man seemed just as perplexed."...what the...C'mon Big-Bang Attack, _Big-Bang Attack!_" he kept trying, repeatedly shoving his palm towards the mountain to know avail. He started forcing his hands in several different weird positions, shouting more random, flamboyant phrases that were neither clever nor catchy. He then looked at his hands for a short while, his face illustrating a great deal of shock and inner horror; the kind of horror one had when they realized they were blind or deaf, making a series of weird exhaling noises.

"_Wow_..." Sokka joked,"You made a whole mountain vanish and reappear all in the blink of an eye! I must of been blinking as it happened. You, my friend, are a master magician. I cower at your presence..." he mocked, bowing in "respect".

"YOU!" the man roared, throwing his finger at the kids,"What did you do to me? What happened to my ki!?

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Aang responded, his hands raised defensively; he then paused."Wait, your what?" he inquired.

"My ki! It's gone!" the man replied.

"Well, I'm sorry, we didn't find a key on you when we saved you; maybe it came off when you fell off of Appa..." Katara began.

"Not that kind of key! _Ki_! My energy!? It should be screaming out of my body!"

Aang pondered this for a moment, then snapped his fingers."Oh, you mean your _chi_! Was that how you were trying to destroy that mountian?"

"Well _of course! Keh_, typical Earthlings..." he mumbled, looking away and crossing his arms.

"But, the monks always taught me that if any human being ever had that much chi inside of them, they'd explode..." Aang explained.

"Oh, but didn't you hear, Aang? He's a _Saaiiyaann_..." Sokka continued to mock, enjoying this far more than he would usually.

"You dare make fun of my race!?" the man lurched forward, about to seize the teen by the throat.

The Avatar stopped in front of the two."Hey, wait, everybody calm down. Look, Sir, maybe you're just really shaken from the crash and you can't bend yet. Trust me, it's hard to airbend when you're tired."

"Oh really? Well, if that's the case, then I demand you take me to the nearest civilization where I can recuperate..." the man replied smugly, his arms crossed.

"Oh, well what a coincidence!" Katara cut in,"We're on our way to Omashu: one of the biggest and oldest cities in the history of our world," she explained.

"Yeah, we're going so I can learn earth bending from my hundred year old friend; see, I'm the Avat-"

"Whatever! Hurry up and get there already. I need to recover my strength!" the man replied.

"Okay, but it's still a long trip; better get comfortable while you can..." Aang explained, hopping back to Appa's reigns."By the way, I'm Aang. This is Katara and her brother Sokka."

"Pleased to meet you, " the young waterbender greeted.

_"lunatics..." _Sokka mumbled.

"So, we didn't catch your name..." Aang reminded expectently.

The man snorted, lying at the back of the saddle, his arms folded and eyes closed."It's Vegeta: don't forget it".

The sky bison flew off into the horizon, carrying its passengers who lives will be changed for ever, especially Vegeta's.


	2. The Cave of Annoying Musical Hippies

**Now, before you continue reading this, I feel that I should set a few thigs straight:**

**I'm sure the lot of you are questioning what exactly happened to Vegeta's ki, strength, speed,etc., most of which a Saiyan should naturaly have.**

**First of all, let me remind you that this a mainly _humor_-centered fanfic; being obsessively consistent would drain the fun out of it.**

**Second, though I am a DBZ fan and think it's literally the greatest mang that has ever walked the earth, I don't really aboslutely drool over the very mention of the character's names (though admitedly, it will earn a double-take if mentioned in a place outside the internet domain...) and take it personaly when something unlike the manga happens to them, especially if the character is portrayed correctly (_Money-Ball Z_ for example.**

**Thirdly...guys, look at it how it is: I got VEGETA (post-Cell arc mind you!) and put him into tthe world of AVATAR: THE LAST _AIRBENDER. _What did you _expect _me to do!?**

**Please take all this into account, because I don't plan on holding back on old Veggie in this story. As far as I'm concerned, he will pay for every wrong deed he has ever committed.**

_**che, Goku was always my favorate anyway...**_

* * *

The twenty-four hours following the introduction were exeedingly uneventfull; they had camped near a river somewhere in the mountanious region, and so far managing to avoid the subject of other-worldly beings or "mountainbending". The morning after proved to be ecpecially distrubing; that is, the only person disturbed was Vegeta.

Even after taking the time to rest and do nothing per the bald child's advice, the Saiyan prince had yet to show any signs of recovery; his body was just fine, but he still was unable to utilize or atleast feel the unrivaled power flowing throughout his body (unrivaled on this planet, that is; had the half-breed accompanied him, that would not have been the case...). It was such an alien feeling to him; he couldn't even fly or lift objects more than twice his own size - something he was able to do literally since birth, and he meant literally: as a boy, he would listen to accounts of doctors and nurses of a Saiyian infant fireing out of his mother like a cannonball, at such a velocity that they didn't even have to severe the umbilical cord, smashing the doctor's rib cage inward and rendering him a parapalegic for life. Whenever Vegeta walked, it was only to look imposing in front of others; he never once in his wildest dreams believe it to become...neccasary.

He learned quickly not to threaten his new "escorts" - his only guidance to civilization, seeing as he wasn't quite sure how strong he was without his ki; frankly, experience has taught the warrior not to fluant whatever advantage he had until he knew for sure his opponents weren't holding back a reserved power, and by "experience", he meant "Freiza", or "Cell"...or "Brolly" or...or basicly anyone he met succeededing his battle with Kakarot; he didn't care how degrading it was, the Saiyan was not taking any chances with these human children. You can call him paranoid, but only after you get _your _tail chopped off by an obese samurai...

"Hey, uh, excuse me?" inquired a shrill voice.

Vegeta opened up one eye to see the teenager known as "Sokka", wearing nothing but a white cloth wrapped around his loins to pass off as underwear, his arms crossed.

He sighed, closing his eye."What?" Vegeta demanded as he lie his bare back against a boulder. The "waterbender" had strenously persuaded him to remove his suit and armor so that she could attempt to scub off the burn stains; they were currently drying on Appa's horn, so at the moment, he, like Sokka, was stripped down to a pair of flexible black boxer shorts, and he didn't need to reopen his eye to tell that the boy felt emasculated by the Saiyan's physique.

"Look, I don't know what life is like on 'your planet', but on this world, when people from a group and are on a journey, the work is evenly divided. I don't care how close we are to Omashu, you better start contributing to the group, or you might as well leave now..." Sokka asserted.

Vegeta snorted, picked up a good sized rock, and jammed it into the annoying teen's mouth, effectively silencing him save for the muffled grunts and skwaks as he struggled to pull it out,"There, that contributing enough?" he smirked. At the very least, he could still put ninety-pound weaklings in their place...

Despite the violent gesture, the other children giggled at this as they continued their supposed training, which looked more like textbook seduction from where he was reclining."Guess that crosses 'Shut Sokka Up' off the daily to-do list..." the girl joked.

"Or for the morning atleast..." the unknowingly seducted bald child added."By the way, Vegeta, you still haven't told us anything about where you came from. I mean, are there any different kinds of benders?"

Sokka would of course had made a nother skeptical comment, but he was to busy with the rock in his mouth.

The Saiyan allowed his head to hang forward,"I already told you: there's nothing special about the planet I left; that's why I left it," Vegeta dissmissed irritably; he had a feeling if told of the fate of his true home world, it would be too much for these naive youths. Besides, that was his business,"Just take me to this 'Omashu', and I'll be out of your hair."

" 'Out of my hair' ? Why would ever want that?" the girl interjected, walking onto dry land,"This is easily the most infuential event in world history! Two worlds, two races converging for the first time; I know you probably

do plenty of space travel yourself, but for us? It's like, a turning point in the development of mankind! It potentialy end the conflict that's engulfed our people!"

Vegata felt the bridge between his eyes: If he had a space-soda for everytime he heard this speech, he would have some serious gas problems.

"Besides," the boy beamed, wlking over to the Saiyan,"I've made it a point to make firends with everyone I meet. And if you really are the prince of another world, that means I can start a whole new social network across the universe!" he explained, holding Vegeta's hand.

The space warrior immedatly jerked his hand away as if Aang were on fire; no one touches the exposed hand of the Prince,"Grr-Whatever! Just as long as you don't break into song about it..." he grumbled as he spun around, rubbing his violated hand.

Strangely enough, the surrounding area hummed with a faint tune. The Saiyan immediatly whipped around and seized Aang up to eye-level."WHAT DID I SAY!?"

"That's not me!" Aang quickly defended himself.

As the tune grew louder, the four unision looked over towards the direction it was coming from. Out of nowhere, a small group of humans with odd sorts of clothing seemed to rise up from the horizon as they played on, slowly entering the campsite without even realizing.

The man in the front, a tall scrawny fellow with a wierd red had and a halfway put on shirt appeard to be leading the way, whichever way that was supposed to be, strumming a pinkish-purple pipa. And to the Sayan's greater annoyance, he started singing...

_"Two lovers, forrbidden from one another_

_The waaar diviiides_ _thier peoplllle_

_And mountain diviiides them apart..._

_Built a path to be be together_

"Duh, I forgot the next the couple 'o lines, but then it goes..."

_"SECRET TUNNLE!_

_SECRET TUNNLE!_

_Through the mountain,_

_SECRET, SECRET, SECRET, SECRET TUNNLLLLLLLE_yeah..." they stopped their song.

The kids had only silence to offer; even Vegeta's regular scowl breifly vanshed.

"Heh-hey, river people!" The skinny musician beamed.

"We're not river people," Katara replied.

"You're not? Then, what kind of people are ya?"

"Just...people..." was all Aang could think to say.

"Aren't we all, brother? Whoo..." the man lamented.

_"Perfect, just what I was hoping for on this planet: hippies..."_ thought Vegeta, which in his subconscous translated "target practice"...soon as he recovered, that is; he hoped these people had an address until then...

After expelling the rock out of his mouth by slamming his fists painfully into his abdomen, the half-naked teen stomped over to the man, pointing an accusing finger."Who are you?"

"I'm Chong, this is my wife Lily," he gestures to the woman, who curtsies,"We're nomads - happy to go whereever the wind takes us."

"You guys are nomads?" Aang repeated,"That's great! _I'm_ a nomad!"

"Hey, me too!" Chong replied. .

"You already told us that..." Vegeta reminded.

"...oh..." Chong recalled, scanning Vegeta,"...Hey, _nice _underwear..."

The Saiyans expression couldn't have been more flat."...Is my suit dry yet?" He asked the waterbender rather hastily.

* * *

It took a while, but Vegeta was eventually fully dressed like everyone else, having walked quit a distance to find the ideal place (he wasn't changing anywhere near that pipa playing freak...)."Alright, I'm ready to depart, onward to Omashu," the prince ordered his "subjects", just then pulling on his glove.

The bald clild turned to the Saiyan with a smile."Hey, Vegeta, you should hear some of these stories. These guy've been everywhere!"

The hippy stopped playing his intrument."Well, not everywhere, little arrow-head. But where we havn't been , we've heard through songs and stories..."

"Tch, '_everywhere'..._" Vegeta scoffed," I have traveled across the entirety of the universe, I've seen everything that _is_ to be seen. Why, I was even sent to the pit of Hell once, and miraculously resurrected by sheer technicality..." he tightened his fist in rememberance,"I doubt you insipid neanderthauls have even yet to breach your own atmosphere!"

The whole area seemed to stare at him awkwardly...

"...I've seen a waterfall that creates a never-ending rainbow..." the fat one recalled lathargicly.

Vegeta's scowlless expression returned.

Sokka sighed."Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara's busy, I guess it's up to me.." he began, with his sister shooting him a breif glance,"Vegeta's right, need to get to Omashu. _No_ sidetracks, _no _waterfalls, and _definately_ no Hell." he counted with his fingers.

"_Whoa_, looks like you guys've got a case of 'destination fever'; heh, you're worried too much about where you're going..." the skinny hippie explained.

"You've got to focus less on the 'where', and more on the _'going'_," the hippie wife added.

"O..." Vegeta began.

"Ma..." Sokka continued.

_"Shu..."_Vegeta finished.

"You're right, guys," Katara consigned,"We need to get to Omashu so that Aang can learn earthbending somewhere safe. We're also escorting an alien prince to the nearest city so he can recover from his injuries."

Comepletely unpreoccupied, the teen took the oportunity to facepalm.

"Well, sounds like like you guys're headed to Omashu," Chong deduced, causing the Saiyan to facepalm as well," There's a story about an old secret pass..._right through the mountains..._" he explained like an old ghost story.

"Is this real or a legend?" Katara inquire for confirmation.

"Oh, it's a real legend - as old as earthbending itself," Then, to Vegeta's shock, began the exact same song from before...

_Two lovers,_

_Forbbiden from one another,_

_A waaar diviiides their-_

That was all the singer could say before the Saiyans snatched the instrument from his hands and savagely broke it in half with his knee."ENOUGH OF YOUR MUSIC!" he roared, throwing the pieces into the river.

The groupwas momentarily stunned from his outburst, until Chong simply pulled an identical pipa out from behind him."When it comes to music, I'm always prepared." he started playing the tune again, just humming this time.

Vegeta was on the verge of a stroke at this point..."..._That's it_, I'm out of here..." he finalized, turning around and walking out of the camp.

Aang and Katara naturally threw a concerned glance at the alien."Vegeta, are you sure you want to leave now? There might be a bunch of Fire Nation scouts out there, and this cave could be the only safe route to Omashu..."

"Please," the prince blew the comment, not even facing him,"I don't need your sympathy. Ki or know ki, I'm an unequaled fighter; these 'firebenders' you speak of poses no threat..."

* * *

"LAUNCH" the Fire Nation commander ordered, his subordinates launching multiple flaming sulfur boulders and fireballsflying past the fleeing Saiyan as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

* * *

"On second thought, I could use the company..." the Vegeta reasoned as he nonchalantly walked pass the group, his suit once again stained with burn marks and his head covered in ashes.


	3. Mole Roll'd

After another wash, The group were now on they're way to the cave, walking along a road with ruined temples in the background.

"This tunnel'd better be real, hippie..." Vegeta threatened.

"Actually, it's not just one tunnel," Chong explained,"The lovers didn't want anyone to find out their love, so they built a whole _labrynth..._"

Sokka wheeled around in shock."Labrynth!?"

"I'm sure we'll figure it out..." the musician mused.

"All you need to do, is trust in love," Lily said,"...according to the curse..."

At this, the teen paused long enough for the others to pass him; then when no one was looking, he attempted to release his frustration a quick burst of writhing and convulsions...it didn't work..."Curse!?" he whined.

The Saiyan clenched his fist in annoyance. The almighty Vegeta, force to navigate through a cave like some ant! In any other senario, he'd just fly over to the city on his own, and leave these insects to slowly starve to death underground. But no, the divine entity that oversees creation itself (apparently, his name was "Dende" now...") has decided to strip the prince of his mobility and drop down amongst the lesser beings. At least _insects_ can fly...

Though the Saiyan was still perplexed as to how that could've happened. Could it be that the gravity of this world is so intense that it takes an exeptional amount of energy just to walk? No, that couldn't be it; if it took that much effort, the prince would obviously be aware of that since he would have to use his ki to stand upright; and, if it were that difficult, a simple transition to Super Saiyan would be enough to resist it completely, which he was also unable to do as if he had never done it before. He shot a distrustfull glance at the children. It could very well be that these inhabitance had downed his spacepod and drugged him with somekind of ki-draining poison, leading him into a trap within this cave. After all, few tounges in the universe had gone without spreading word of the terror that is Vegeta, let alone the Saiyan race, and these supposed "humanoids" could be in fact a band of alien bounty hunters, perhaps each one a member of a species rendered criticly endangered by some of Frieza's global purges, that have gathered to take revenge for their lost kind upon the only being left to be credibly held responsible for the tragedies. After all, there' no way people of _any _race could be this stupid...although, if the late Kakarot were any indication, he wouldn't put it past them just yet...

Before he knew it, they were standing before an enormous opening in the face of the mountain, more than lage enough to accomodate the bison. There was a small plague in the wall, no doubt the name of the labrynth in some alien writing, which suspicously resembled the Japenese caligrafy of the previous Earth.

"So, about this so-called 'curse'..." Vegeta inquired.

"The curse says that only those who trust in love can make through the caves," Chong continued," Otherwise you'll trapped in them forever..."

"...And die..." Lily added.

"O-Oh yeah, and die..." he paused..."...Hey! I just remembered the rest of the song..." he stroked his pipa dramaticly.

_"And diiiiiiiie..."_ he sung in a deep voice.

"I don't suppose you have a third one of those...?" The prince asked preemptively.

"Nope, this is my last pipa, sorry..."

"Good," Vegeta replied before seizing the instrument and snapping in two the same way as before, casually tossing the pieces aside and crossing his arms...only for the musican to seemlessly pull a different intrument out of nowhere.

"Good thing I brought a sitar!" Chong beemed.

At this, the Saiyan instantly fell to the ground anime-style.

The group stared at him awkwardly as he got up."How'd you fall over?" Aang wanted to know.

"Oh nothing, just paralyzed by a blast of pure stupid..." Vegat blew it off, fully upright.

"Wow, I didn't know you could get hurt by something like that. Is that a weakness of a your species?" Katara wondered.

Once again, Sokka face-palmed.

"Is _that _a weakness of _your_ species?" Vegeta retorted, gesturing to the boy.

"mmNo, it's mostly Water Tribe-exclusive..." was the girl's response as the sound of rumbling machinery echoed throught the crevice.

The group turned around to see several steam-powered tanks in the distance barreling straight towards them.

_"Blast, they found me!"_ thought Vegeta.

"Oh, so that's where that's where that smoke was coming from..." Chong realized.

"What!?" Sokka inquired,"You mean you _saw_ the smoke? Why didn't you say anything!?" he lunged into the musician's face.

"I dunno, I just thought it might be some smoke-breathing, mountain monster..." the hippie explained.

"You mean...it wasn't a campfire?" the fat one asked slowly.

The bald child turned over to Chong."So, all you need is love to get throught the caves?"

"That's correct, master Arrowhead..." Chong confirmed.

The boy's glance shifted towards the waterbender, seemingly mesmerized by the older girl even from behind.

Chong and Lily faced each other and smiled deeply.

Vegeta noticed the fat one standing next to him was gazing upon him romanticly as well; his face lost some color...

"Everyone into the hole!" Sokka commanded, the rest following (with the Saiyan quickening his pace).

As soon as they were at least sixty feet into the tunnel, they heard futher rumbling as they whelled around and saw the entrance crumbling behind them, their light scoucre being gradually cut off until it was completely dark...

As soon as Chong lit a torch, the bison, apparently afraid of caves for an unknown reason, was seen franticly searching for a another exit, digging at the pile of rocks with his clawless feet.

"It's okay Appa we'll be fine...I hope..." Katara tried to comfort the animal.

"Hey, Vegeta..." Aang hatched an idea,"maybe if you're recovered, you and I could combine our airbending to blast our way out of this cave!"

"I already told you, boy, I'm not an airbender! And believe me, if I were recovered, you'd know..." the Sayain retorted, crossing his arms.

"I'm just tossing ideas around..." Aang replied.

"Don't worry, Vegeta, I'm sure you'll get your powers back soon..." Katara tried to comfort Vegeta, using the exact same tone as on Appa

"Riiiight. Any way, Chong, how long do those candles last?" Sokka asked

"Eh 'bout two hours each..." he said.

"And we have five torches, so that's..." Lily gathered all the canldes and lighted them all at once,"ten hours!"

The teen balked, then snatched the candles and stomped them out."It doesn't work like that if they're all lit at the _same time!_"

"_Ohhhh_, right..." the woman realized.

"Somehow, I doubt this world will be known for its logic puzzles..." Vegeta lamented, shaking his head.

"Oh yeah? What's your world known for, tough guy?" Sokka retorted.

"Wait till the next full moon and you'll find out!" the Saiyian replied, stomping over to the teen.

"Guys! Seriously!" Aang interjected, his hands raised pleadingly; he sighed."Look, Sokka, you should make a map to keep track of where we've been. Then we should be able to solve it like a maze and get through." he explained.

"Good-thinking," Sokka said, producing a piece of paper,"Who's got a pen?"

"I have one!" the fat one beamed, taking one out from his underwear.

Vegeta twitched,_"This is going to be a looong enterprise..."_

* * *

It felt as if hours had gone by, though it was only about fifteen minutes, not that being trapped underground with some new-age fop made life more pleasant. And as if Fate (alias Dende) couldn't be more cruel, the "free-thinker's" name in question just happened to be _"Moku"_ - one letter away from his arch-nemesis, who was probably laughing at him from up there; or perhaps the clown felt jealous of him, as sick as his low-class mind was. It didn't, however, take any more than five minutes for the prince to decide he was sick of these hippies in general, particularly the one called Chong; the Sayian would have felt welcome to brake his latest instrument, but he really didn't care to see how many more he was concealing.

Vegeta could, at least for the time being, distract himself with the intellectual discussion taking place...

"Are we there yet?" Chong asked.

"No," Vegeta replied mundanely.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

_"No..."_

"Are we there yet?"

_"No.."_

"Are we there yet?"

"_NO..."_

"Are we there yet?"

_"NO...!"_

"Well how do you know? You're just as lost as I am..." the musician reminded.

The Vegeta spun around."THEN WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME!?" he demanded.

The skinny hippie shrugged."I just thought we were playing _twenty-questions..._"

The Saiyan stared at the man befuddled for a few moments, then roared at top of his lungs, so loud as to scare away the surrounding wolfbats and cause the cave itself to shake dangrously. It soon became evident that the ceiling was beginning to collapse. The bald child acted quickly, using airbending to blast Vegata, Sokka, and the band out of the path of the debris, which started to pile up between them until they were seperated by a wall of boulders.

While Sokka was agust, Vegeta began franticly digging through as futily as the bison, who was with the other two."No, no, no, nononoNONONO_OOO, I'm going to be stuck down here foreeeveeeer..._!" he moaned, clutching his head and resting on his knees.

"Uh, you ok there, Space Man?" Chong inquiried calmly.

"_**Yoouuu**__..._" his the alien, turning around and arising menecingly,"You did this! I'm going to send you to olbivion!"

Lily paused in consufion."But, how can you send us anywhere if we're trapped in a cave forever?"

The prince charged, but was stopped by Sokka."HEY! Chill out! It was _you_ who yelled in the first place, Space Boy!" he reminded.

"YOU DARE STAND IN MY WAY!?" the prince cried.

"WILL YOU SHUT UP!? YOU'LL CAUSE ANOTHER CAVE IN, JUST..." Sokka grunted, allowing most of the tension to vent,"Will ya just listen? Look, this labrynth was carved by _people_, meaning the tunnels were likely designed to intersect at some points so they wouldn't get lost..."

"Wasn't getting lossed the point of making a labryinth...?"

"Moku! Not helping! All we have to do is navigate through the tunnels until we regroup with Aang and Katara make it out of this stupid cave and into Omashu. In the mean-time, we'll just follow Aang's plan and trace our steps with a make-shift map."

"FINE! But _I'm _making the map!" Vegeta replied, snatching the paper and pen from the teen's hands, pacing forward,"I'm not going to let you idiots drag me along any further..." he concluded on his way.

"Lead the way, veggie-man..." Moku encouraged.

**One Hour Later...**

_Oh, don't let the cave get you down... _

Chong played on with his sitar...

_Don't let the falling rocks turn-you-smi-le intoafrown..._

_When the tunnels are darkest, that's when you need a clown-HEY!_

_Don't let the cave get you down, Space Maaaaaaan..." _he leaned over to the scowling Sayian as he stopped for now.

"..._Is there any song you know that _ISN'T about CAVES?" Vegeta growled.

The musician held his chin in contemplation for a second...

(to the tune of _I'm a Gummie-Bear_)

_Oh I'm a gopher-bear..._

_Yes I'm a gopher-bear!_

_I'm a fuzzy, chubby, cabbage-eating gopher-bear!_

Vegeta's head hung low...

**Two Hours Later...**

"Oh great, your plans have led us straight to another dead-end!" Moku complained, as even he had grown weary of the song's.

"At least we're thinking of ideas, _Moku..." _Sokka retorted.

"Whoa, Whoa, wait a mintue, we're thinking of ideas? 'Cause I've had an idea for, like, an hour now..."

Vegeta facepalmed, then slowly dragged his gloved hands across his face."Yes, Chong, We're all _thinking_...OF IDEAS! FEEL FREE TO CAST YOUR LOT...!" he reminded.

"Well listen to this: if _love _is the key out of hear, then all we need to do is play a love song!" he speculated, playing his instrument once more.

The Saiyain was on the verge of a mental breakdown."...You know, I happen to know someone that you would get along with very well... it's a good thing he's **ALREADY DEAD!**" he announced before picking up a large rock over his head and charging the man.

Suddenly the ground begins to quake again, catching the attention of the entourage.

Out of nowhere, an enormous furry beast erupted through the wall behind them; then another beast bursted through the dead-end.

"BADGER MOLES!" Moku whaled.

The other players dropped their instruments in terror.

While Vegeta was momentarily taken off guard, he snorted and tossed the map aside."Oh what, you think I'm intimidated by these over-grown rats?" he assumed a battle pose.

"What part of 'you have no almighty space-powers' do you not understand!?" Sokka reminded fearfully.

"Please, even without my ki, I've still been endowed with the natural dexterity of a Saiyan Super-Elite!"

A second later, the badger mole in front decided to stomp over to Vegeta and back-handed him into a wall.

Vegeta was sprawled against the wall, his "dexterous" body forming an impression in the stone."Grrfltpnighulserfn...mem..." he mumbled as he gradually slipped from the earth and flopped onto the ground. Vegata strenously pushed himself beck into concsousness, soon enough to notice a giant shadow looming over him; he looked up and backed away in fear as the monster lumbered closer.

A similar thing was transpiring with Sokka as well, only instead of being pimp-slapped by a large fuzzy paw, the other badger mole isolating the teen from the group with earthbending. It sent a shockwave that knocked Sokka into the wall near Vegeta. Sokka crawled backwards, nearing the Saiyan as both moles closed in; however, Sokka's arm happened to come across something on the away - anothers one of Chong's gituars. His finger accidentily grazed one of the strings, the tune echoing through out the cave; the beast stopped growling as they heard it. Vegata and Sokka paused in confusion until they realized the truth...

"H-Hey! They're music lovers!" Chong vocalized.

Sokka immediately grabbed the intrument and repeatedly stroked the same string, singing off the top of his head as he did so..."_Badger moooles, coming toward me; com'on guuuys, help me out..._"

That was all the teen could muster before the Saiyan rented the sitar from his grasp."Give me that, you moron! CAN'T YOU PLAY FOR YOUR LIFE!?"

The pair of beast were clearly aggrivated at Vegeta for interrupting Sokka's song; noting this, the prince immediately began striking random cords on the sitar and sounding the first lyrics that were in his head, albiet horribly off-key:"_You're no stranger to love; you know the rules, and so do I..."_

The animals were far more intriged by this new song...

* * *

It wasn't long before the whole group was riding the two beast, all happily playing and singing in unison along with Vegeta...

_"Never gonna give you up!_

_Never gonna let you down..._

_Never gonna run around and..._

_Desert you!_

_Never gonna make you cry..._

_Never gonna SAAAAY 'good-bye'!_

_Never gonna tell a lie..._

_And hurt you!"_

As soon as they stopped playing, the two moles exploded through one more wall finally reaching the outside. They instantly noticed Aang, Katara, and Appa stading before them in awe.

Sokka and Vegeta slid down the moles; the teen ran exitedly while the Saiyan took his time.

"How'd you get out?" Sokka wondered.

"It's just like the legend says: we let love lead the way..." Aang left explained.

"Really? We let huge ferocious beasts lead the way..." Sokka said, waving the bedger moles goodbye along with the band, the beasts rentering the caves and sealing their exit with earthbending.

Chong placed a friendly hand on Vegata's shoulder."I gotta admit, Vegeta, despite what was said in that tunnel earlier, you truly have to be one of the greatest singers in the universe..." he said warmly, removing his flowery necklace and hanging it around the Saiyan's neck,"Although I'm not gonna lie, you were really startin' to annoy the crap outta me..."

All the Prince had to offer in return was his blankest expression yet... "...Just leave now..."

Chong bowed in repsect."As you command..." he then departed with the other hippies as he sung _Cha la Head Cha la _to himself, prompting Vegeta to do double-take.

* * *

A little while later, the kids, bison, lemur and Saiyan were pacing up a small hill.

"Well actually, it's more like a platoon..." Vegeta replied.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"Nothing."

Sokka payed no mind."Well, the journey was long and annoying, but now you get to see what it's really about: the destination..." he announced, speeding up to the top,"Vegeta, I present to you, the city of O...oh no..."

The group soon saw what his shock came from. As they stood on the top, they could see a huge mountain-like city spewing with smoke and surrounded in a large metalic wall, where the banner of the Fire Nation hung for all to see...

"...Seems pleasant..." Vegeta said off-handedly.


	4. Because I Felt Kinda' Sorry For 'Em

"SEEMS PLEASENT!?" Sokka gawked at the Saiyan, lunging into his face,"Are you kidding me!? You think THAT'S a pleasent-looking city!? Do you have any idea how NOT pleasent the Fire Nation is!? If you were to compare how pleasent the Fire Nation is to a tree, it'd be the most _rotten, __**putrid **_tree in a forest FULL of rotten, putrid trees! I mean one o' the rotten trees would be like,'Hey, ew, look at how ugly that tree is; I feel far less rotten and putrid just by glancing at it!', and then another tree would turn to the first tree and be all like,'Hey, I hear that tree cheated on his tree wife and then tree raped her just 'cause he felt like it,' and then uncredible rumors would spread across the whole decaying forest like wildfire until your left with nothing but an entire forest full of gossiping, lepperous trees!" Sokka finished, frozen in an over dramatic pose, peering into the warrior's eyes.

Vegeta meerly stood there with his arms crossed."...What is wrong with your voice?" he finally asked, completely unaffected by the teen's high-pitch rant.

Suddenly, Sokka flopped to the ground anime-style.

Sokka lifted himself up on his arms, totallly befuddled."What...What the heck just happened to me?"

"It seems you were so overwelmed with frustration, you temporarily lost all voluntary muscle control; that'll probably happen more often from here on..." speculated Vegeta.

Katara sighed."Sokka, we keep telling you, Vegeta's from space; he doesn't know anything about the War."

While Sokka would have normally hit himslef in the head at such a declaration, the teen felt oddly more sober after allowing every muscle in his entire body to spasm simultaneously, so he settled with sighing and propping his chin on his hand."Of course, my bad..."

Katara began to explain."Vegeta, for the past hundred years, the Fire Nation has waged a full-scale war with the whole world in a mad bid for total domination of our planet; they've taken over cities, burned down countless villages, and even wiped out the Air Nomads!" she told him, gesturing to the bald child,"They also took my mother away..." she added mournfully.

After the Saiyan spared a moment to take this in, he scoffed."_pttf, _I can top that: My entire race was single handedly eradicated by a short, transexual lizard who treated the universe like it was his backyard! I to this day still haven't the slightest idea how Nappa survived..." he lamented, staring into space.

The boy blinked in realization."Wait a minute, you mean, your whole race was wiped out? _My _whole race was wiped out! See? We finally have something in common!" he chirped inspite of the subject.

Sokka then felt it time to arise to his feet, wiping the dirt off his clothes."No, Aang, his race was not wiped out, because he is _not_ from space, he does _not_ have any special powers, and there is _no such thing_ as other worlds," he stated firmly, facing Vegeta.

"I'm _really_ starting not to care for your ignorance..." warned the Saiyan.

The two stared down with a thousand-yard glare, which was rather peculiar considering they were standing merely several inches apart from eachother.

"Sokka, Vegeta is our friend, there's no reason to engage..." Aang started slowly.

"And if by 'ignorance', you mean 'I think you're full of komodo furtilizer' then you can bet I'm the most ignorant person on the planet, aside from you, that is..." Sokka prodded.

Vegata leaned in closer, cocking his head to the right."You are aware I graduated with a major in planet bursting?"

"I don't see how that would worry me: _I'm _not a planet..." Sokka replied.

"Sokka, stop it! You're going to give our species a bad reputation!" Katara pleaded.

"Listen to me, you worthless runt..." Vegeta started.

" _'Runt!?'_" Sokka scoffed," You're one to talk; we're the exact same height!"

It was this comment that caused the Saiyan's scowl to breifly vanish as it had before, taking more brain power than usual to process the teen's reply; when it was fully comprehended, he mindlessly tackled the Water Tribe boy to the ground.

Vegeta had his strong, muscular hands rapped around Sokka's narrow throat, forcing the teen to poke Vegeta in the eyes with his fingers and head-butted the prince in the nose; though this caused the Saiyan's death-lock to relent, they still continued to wrestle, rolling and grunting across the plateau.

"Sokka! No! Please!" Katara cried out.

The two tumbled over a cliff and into a tree, which shook violently as they brawled within its leaves; they eventually fell out apart from eachother.

"You...You TAKE THAT BACK!" Vegeta stamered, his hair haggard and dizzily arising to his feet.

"Make me!" Sokka cried, his pony tail unraveled to reveal his long, messy mane; he unsheathed his boomerang and hurled it at Vegeta.

The Saiyan deflected the projectile away with a swipe of his arm, and, out of pure space-instinct, forced his palms toward his opponent as if to fire a ki blast - which exactly what happened: the small ball of energy flew into Sokka's abdomen and knocked him off his feet.

_"ugh, What? I..." _he realized, looking at his hands.

The girl and bald child were speechless as they viewed it all from the edge.

"Um, Vegeta, could you do that again? I think the sun somehow got in my eyes despite the fact that I was clearly looking down," the boy requested.

"Vegeta, your bending is back!" Katara beamed, clasping her fingers together in a fashion stereo-typical of her particular character,"Wow, I've never seen bending so beautiful before..." yep, no dynamic traits over here...

While the teen was momentarily agust, he quickly stood upright and resumed his own static nature."Well big deal, so he can shoot sunlight out of his hands, it still doesn't prove he's from space," he concluded, dusting his torso off, "Besides, it didn't exactly make any mountains dissappear; and we're not gonna beat the Fire Lord by pushing him over..." though his comment was finished, his voice was soon drowned out by the slowly growing laughter of the Saiyan prince, who had apparently comepletely ignoring the children out of sheer joy of firing his first ki-ball in, well, it was really only about thirty-six hours since his crash-landing, but for the Saiyan, it felt as if he were a savage polar bear just awakening from a long hibernation...

Wait a second, polar bears don't hibernate...aw, screw it, back to the story...

"Yes, Yes! I knew this ailment couldn't have lasted! The Prince of Saiyans has returned!" Vegeta revelled, pumping his fists in the air.

"I thought you were the last of your kind..." Sokka reminded snidely

"Oh, shut up! It's the principal that matters..." Vegeta responded, staring out into space in that way that somehow makes him look cool, "Besides, that little ball I threw at you is literally nothing compared to the power of most races: you people are truly refuse; and now that I have even a splint of my ki, I don't need you anymore..." the Saiyan announced ruthlessly, walking off into the distance his gaze was directed towards, which just happened to be the newly-conquered city of Omashu.

"Wait, your leaving?" Katara asked,"But, we barely know anything about you or your culture; I mean, you're literally the _last _member of your species; you're like the hand extended at the precipise of your dying world, desperately crying out for its story of life to be heard. Even if, somewhere out in the universe, there were some young, sovreighn child roughly Aang's age who possessed Saiyan blood from one side of his family and even were just as powerful or even more powerfull than the entirety of your race combined, it still wouldn't count. Isn't there some quality of your people that stands out from the universe; or at the very least, an account of the hardships and sufferings of your own personal journey throughout the cosmos?"

The Saiyan pondered all of this deeply..."...nupe..." he said nonchalantly, continuing his walk.

The three stood and watched the blue-clad warrior fade away into the landscape.

"Guys, let's just forget about him; we've got to find a way to get into the city..." Sokka began.

* * *

It could well have been considered night by the time the Saiyan had passed half a mile within the city gates, having treked across the bridge spanning the distance between the city itself and the point where he left the annoying children.

Vegeta still wasn't able to fly, but he crossed the path silently and without complaint; he thought the walk might be good for his ki, which he was going to need very soon, as the Saiyan was nearing the iron gates, the lookouts spotting him long before he them, and the two guards at the gates were fully prepared for a confrontation, but Vegeta was not worried: he was prepared as well...

"Halt, trespasser! What business do you have hear!?" one of the guards demanded, pointing an accusing finger; they were clearly not happy to see a man clad in blue with the limits of the city, let alone anything but red...

"Have no fear, I am not here to harm you..." _"...for tonight..." _Vegeta kept the last part in his mind,"I am but a humble traveler wishing to reload on some supplies from your great city," _"...which I will blow up soon after..." _he continued to think, attempting to walk passed them.

The two "firebenders" immediatly shifted into their special stances."Not one inch further!" the other guard replied."We're going to have to see some qualification!"

Vegeta rolled his eyes. While he was sure he could take these to men out seemlessly, there was no telling how many more sentries were watching him at this point, an he still did not want to take a chance with these inhabitance; the only way to get pass the guards was to convince them to allow him passage. Speaking of which, this reminded the Saiyan of a similar scenario that he had the pleasure watching on earth television, he wondered if the strange technique could be employed with some ki...

"You don't _need_ to see to my qualification..." Vegeta sounded eriely, waving his hand in an attempt to place his influence upon them.

The guards paused, their tension lowered."What? of-Of course we do! You're just some strange man that's walking around in the middle of the night!" the first guard concluded.

"..._no_, you don't..." the warrior tried it again.

"Y-Yes we do. Why do you think cities have guards!?" the second guard inquired.

"..._No_, you DON'T!" Vegeta tried harder.

"_Yes_, we DO!" the first guard mocked, waving his own hand."Honestly, you're making a fool out of yourself. If you don't have any qualification, just turn around and come back when you get some!" he finalized, pointing back beyond the Saiyan.

Vegeta slapped his forehead; he should've figured there was only one way through these doors."Fine, just give me a minute..." the Saiyan searched within his imaginary back pockets for some qualification."hmm, let's see here...it's gotta be somewhere I know I...oh my, well this is embarassing, it seems I must've left it in my **GALLICK GUN!" **Vegeta roared, quickly cupping his hands together and shoving them in front the guards...only succeeding in creating a poof of purple, glowing mist that did no harm whatsoever. The three pairs of eyes watched the mist dissapate into little sparkles that floated to the earth, vanishing into nothing; they stared at the ground for a moment...

Vegeta's pupils gradually climbed their way back up to the guards, who were not quite sure what to make of this "display of power".

The first guard's face scrunched up in distain."That was the _worst_ firebending I've ever seen! That's it! You're under arrest!" he announced.

"w-Wait wha NO-!" was what the prince cried before being seized away by his wrists and shoulders.

* * *

Before Vegeta knew where he went wrong, he was stripped down to his underpants and strung by his ankles with a long chain, dangling upsidedown as he was raised to a height of at least fifty feet in the air, staring down at a few smug Fire Nation faces. "YOU INSOLENT VERMIN! I'LL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!" the Saiyan bellowed.

"That'll be enough out of you, bad firebender!" a familiar guard exclaimed."I'd rather face the Fire Lord himself then to allow you to taint this city with your ineptness! We get too much of that from those crazy earthbender rebels as it is!" he finished, shaking his fist.

Apparently, learned the hard way as usual, bad firebending was considered a great offense to firebenders, so much as to have the offender be humiliated in such a way as Vegeta, as an effort to promote perfection among the servants of Fire Lord Ozai; atleast Frieza was decent enough to simply wipe out races he didn't like...

The other guard had an apiphany."Hey, speaking of the Fire Lord, did you hear that Princess Azula is coming to Omashu for a tour?"

Guard #1 brightened up."No way! Really?"

"Yeah!" #2 confirmed,"I heard should be hear by tomarrow afternoon..."

The two guards walked away as they talked about it, leaving Vegeta to himself...

...That is, until the Saiyan swung a glance to his right to see that he in fact was not the only one being suspended by a chain in this particular spot, only this one had the luxury of being hung right-side up; it was a rather senile-looking old man, trapped within the confines of a metal case - Vegeta could tell he was old man due to his face being the only exposed portion of his own personal cell. Well, it was going to be a long night out here, so he might as well be the one to start a conversation, perhaps even strike up an alliance and plot to escape..."...So, what are you up here for?" Vegeta finally asked.

The elderly gentlemen flashed him a mad grin."I'm the king of Omashu!" he beamed.

The Saiyan felt the bridge between his eyes. _"It's the cave all over again..."_

* * *

**_*overly-patronizing tone* Uh-oh! It looks like Vegeta's in a pickle! I wonder how he's gonna get outta this?_**

**_Could he receive some help from this mysterious old fart?_**

**_Or perhaps a certian non-bending goth can help him out?_**

**_Will he ever run into the Gaang again?_**

**_Why the hech am I asking you? Yall'a ingnant!_**

**_Find out nextime on..._**

**_The Cactus Juice Saga!_**


	5. For want of some clothes

As expected, the Saiyan prince hung up there all night long with no sleep, his head as red as an apple from all the alternate blood-flow to his brain, which actually allowed him to think much clearer, which only succeeded in him remaining awake through the darkness while receiving an agonizingly thorough explanation for each of what his new friend Bumi referred to as "the eighty-five jins" - the Saiyan could've sworn that the old man surppassed the eighty-five mark roughly six hours ago, but didn't dare imply that the so-called "king" should start over. All the while, the Saiyan peered up at the three quarter-full moon, with all his might willing his body to transform into the mighty Oozaru and go on a mindless rampage across the countryside; but alas, for two obvious reasons, that concept was but a dream. It didn't matter at this point: the old man had ceased speaking fifteen minutes ago, the dawn of morning clawing its way up the horizon; and while the Saiyan liked to entertain the possibility that the elder's heart had stopped within that span of time, that wish was once again reduced to a dream...

"So..." Bumi began, as if hadn't been talking nonstop for the duration of the night,"You say your name is Vegeta...?"

"I did..." Vegeta replied, wondering when exactly he related his name.

There was another pause...

"...Know what that sounds like?"

"I know what it sounds like..." the Saiyan responded quickly, inwardly begging that little Namekian that this man had not come across the connection-

"Vegetable!"

_"Curse you, Magic Man!"_ Vegeta grimaced mentally.

The old man chuckled."So how did ya end up with a name like that? Did ya shoot outta' the ground when you were a baby?"

_"Something like that..." _Vegeta lamented."For your information, old man, I was named after my father, who established himself as king of the Saiyan race and, in one night, overthough an the entirety of Planet-" his lips tightened, knowing where he was walking right into...

"Planet..." Bumi waited, his wrinkly grin spreading.

The Saiyan's face contorted as he resisted the urge to reveal the original name of his long forgotten home world; but sadly, it was too late."...Plant_..._" he vomitted the words out of his mouth.

The old man burst into a fit of laughter."Named after your father, ey? He sounds like a pretty tough vine! I'm happy to see his _seed_ lives on!" he howled.

Every word of the old man hurt worse than when Frieza shot through his chest with his Death Beam.

"So, what's your brother's name?" the self-proclaimed king inquired.

Vegeta scowled even further."That's none of your business...!"

"Ooh, don't tell me! Is it Fruit? Or, Tarble? As in: Vege_Tarble_!?" the geezer exploded with a mad cackle full of snorts.

The prince hit a critical temperature by now." You listen to me, you wrinkled waste of oxygen: If you make one more produce joke about my family, I'll swing over there and rip your head out of that ridiculous metal box!" he warned.

The elder still giggled."Alright, I'll stop! All you had to do was tell me if you didn't care for what I was..." he stopped, making sure the prince got this last one.

Vegeta's eyes bugged out, stupafied at this man's audacity."Don't. You. _Dare_..."

Bumi's smile widening from one ear to the other."...saiyan..."

* * *

"I tell you, your highness," the govenor began, walking along side Princess Azula, who was being carried via palaquin, as they walked trhough the former Earth King's courtyard,"You will never forget your stay here at Omashu; true, there are many building sites yet to be completed - the memorial statue of your father being our top proje..." though the official's banter had gradually melted away as the area resonated with the distant sound of elongated yelling from some other part of the city, naturally perplexing all the men present.

The princess smirked sinisterly."Actually, I think I'll enjoy my stay just fine..."

* * *

The Space warrior had to take a moment to regain his air after screaming so powerfully, breathing slowly and audibly.

The old man's exposed face cringed the whole time."Wow, you've got _some _lungs there, Space Man! I bet even the Avatar heard that one..." he complemented

**"I WILL INCINER-!...**the ava-what?" Vegeta paused, his unbridled rage somehow counter-acted by this new terminology.

Bumi shook his head as bst he could."Not Ava-what, Ava_tar_; you know? Master of all four elements?"

"What, is that some pagan god you people worship?" the Saiyan queried.

The elder remembered."Oh right, you're from that vegetabe planet, so you don't know who that is..."

The prince glared daggers."I will tree rape you..."

Bumi ingnored him, continuing in a suprisingly prudent tone:"The Avatar is the sage guardian of our world; his primary pupose in life is to maintain an ever-lasting balance and harmony around the earth - he is a great and powerful being, the strongest bender on earth!" he announced.

Vegata snorted."If he's so mighty, then how do you explain the century of war?" he wondered, the humorous atmosphere of this story finally waning.

"I'd really like to, but the Avatar mysteriously disappeared a short while before the War had even begun, and it remains raging on unquenched...but there is indeed hope, for the Avatar has returned; and though he has his work cut out for him this time around, he will eventually restore the balance to this war-torn world," he finished, looking out onto the horizon thoughtlessly.

"_Too bad Sozin's Comet's this summer..._" added a droll, female voice.

The two prisoners paused, and reverted their eyes down(up for Vegeta)wards to see a young girl wearing a long, heavy red baggy garments with sleeves extending beyong her arms; her jet-black hair was neatly tied into pigtails that completely contrasted her facial expression, which was so dead she might as well've not been alive, something she probably dreaded herself.

"So you're supposed to be that bad firebender that tried to sneek into the city last night? That's boring; and I guess regular firebending is boring, your bending must be supremely boring..." she breathed.

And with that, the humor waxed anew, agitated Saiyan and all."I'm _not _a bender, you bratty goth: I'm a Saiyan!"

"I couldn't care less if you were a Super Saiyan - you're boring either way..." she sighed,"oh well, shouldn't've expect less. It was boring meeting you; maybe Azula is here to kill me - at least that'll put an end to all the boredom..." the girl flicked her sleeved hand as she resumed her walk of perpetual boringness.

Vegeta gazed down(up) at the girl, utterly confounded by her irreverence; Bumi, on the other hand, seemed to be formulating an idea. He called for the girl and smiled."Hey! Ya wanna know what _wouldn't_ be boring!? If my friend here _'conveniently_' broke free so he could run amuck all over the city!"

The girl stopped, turning her attention back to the Saiyan."That _does_ sound pretty not boring..." she contemplated. She then produced a knife that was hidden within her sleeve, and gracefully hurled it through the air; the small blade darted passed the chain suspending the half-naked warrior, cleanly severing it in an instant.

"Oh, Dende, not agaaAAAAAAH-!" the Saiyan whaled as he plunged down like a lead balloon, destined to slam head-first onto the cold, merciless pavement. The terrified prince desperately tried to gather whatever miniscule puddle of energy within his body and force it out in bleak effort to proppel himself forward. It kind of worked: the Saiyan stopped short in midair, remaining still like a speeding car driver that hit the brakes, coincidentally at eye-level with the dry-eye girl.

"HAH! IN YOUR FA-!" his gloating was cut off as he plopped to the ground. The Saiyan groggily arose to his feet, taking a moment to allow the his blood-flow to rearrange itself accordingly. "_Right_, so, I never caught your name..."

The teen stared unfazed by this strange display."My name is Mai; I'm the daughter of the guy who governs the city, not that he cares..."

At this, Vegeta cocked his eyebrow, grinning slyly."Ya don't say...?"

Vegeta seized the girl by her waist and flipped her upon his bare shoulder, thought his didn't appear to unnerve the girl. The Saiyan turned his eyes back up to the old man."My salutations to you, Bumi; when I regain my power, I'll see to it you rule this planet with an iron fist."

The elder seemed preoccupied with a long strain of mucus that hung from his left nostril, which he then snorted back into his sinus cavity."whawazat?" he inquired, not listening.

The prince blinked, looking away."...I can make no promises..." he concluded, running off with the girl.

* * *

Cut to two familiar Fire Nation guards, sitting at a table playing pai sho with eachother.

"Hey, I just remembered something: shouldn't we be watching that prisoner we caught last night?" Guard#2 recalled.

Guard #1 chuckled to himself."Right, like that guy's gonna cause us any more trouble. Besides, who cares if a firebender that bad escapes? It's not like there's going to be some special twist that'll suddenly make not only our lives but the lives and welfare of our loved ones heart-poundingly dependent upon his capture..."

"JINX!" Vegeta exclaimed as he blurred past the two, carrying Lady Mai over his shoulder.

The pair of firebenders were awstruck.

"Aww soot, let's get'em!"

It wasn't long before the Saiyan found himself fleeing from a dozen firebenders; a combination of fireballs, swords, and spears flew from behind him and swiped passed him, narrowly missing eachtime.

"Oh yeah, guys, just keep throwing stuff at him; don't even think about how you might hit me..." Mai commented sarcasticly.

Two construction workmen were carrying a large wooden plank over their heads; the one in front froze upon seeing a manic-looking, indecently dressed man with wild hair sprinting in his direction, followed by a squad of soldiers.

"What's the hold up, Do Mat?" the worker in behind asked, right before Do Mat fled for his life, his end of the board dropping to the ground.

This allowed the Saiyan to dash up the plank like a ramp and leap into the air, kicking his way through a second-story window, terrifiying an old lady who was just rising out of bed. After he ran out of the bedroom, the crone flipped the covers, revealing an old man who was still asleep; she promptly slapped the man to awareness.

"What'd _I_ do!?" The husband demanded.

* * *

Vegeta bolted through the apartment; three firebenders blasted the front door down with no intention of paying for it. His way blocked, the Saiyan threw a tiny ki ball at them, stunning the middle one while the other two marveled." 'Bad firebending' _that!_" the prince cried smugly as he darted across the living room and lunged out the window. He ended up in someone else's apartment; he ran passed a startled artist who was painting images on a hand-molded clay pot. A spit-second after, the pot was decimated by a fireball that flew from the first apartment

"Oh come on! AGAIN!?" The potter exclaimed, now baring a sense of what that cabbage merchant must've felt like last winter...

* * *

The prince bounded out the third window, though he quickly realized there was no third apartment to crash into. The Saiyan plummeted down into the street, coincidentally landing butt-first onto the saddle of a poorly-restrained ostrichhorse. The sudden shock caused the animal to franticly gallop down the street.

The rider of the bird was just walking out of the bar restroom, adjusting his trousers; he gasped in horror."Help! I've been bird-jacked!" he yelped as four firbenders on komodorhinos thundered past him.

The prince - Mai still over his shoulder - grappled the flapping reigns of the giant bird ,doing his best to control it. He turned to see his persuers.

The soldiers continued to hurl fireballs at him - again, diregarding Mai.

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE, COPPERS!" the Saiyan spontaneously shouted, shooting little ki projectiles at them through his finger, as if his hand were a pistol.

"Um, I know you're just gonna ignore me like everybody else does, but do you even have the faintest idea about how you're gonna get out of the city in one piece?" Mai inquired calmly, still as monotone as before.

"I'm actually just waiting it out until I have enough energy to blow up the planet..." the Saiyan explained in an equaly droll tone. He fired one more crack shot that nail the front rhino right in the eye, causing it to slow downand make the other riders crash into it; the fourth riders nimbly evaded the pile-up by swerving his rhino into a hard right turn, slamming right into a lamp post. Before the rider cold dismount the beast of burden, the creature, out of pure randomness, exploded in a plum of flame, as if it were an automoblie.

The prince grinned."Looks like the po po ain't no moe'..."

All of a sudden, one of the embers from the explosion landed on the ostrichhorse's tail feather, its whole backside intevitbly catching fire. The bird shreiked, madly dashing twice as fast, this time uncontrolably.

"Gurwah! No! I can't control it!" the Saiyan announced.

Countless citizens, carriage and on foot alike, scrambled in all directions from the half-naked madman on a flaming ostrichhorse at it blazed down the street like a rocket.

"Oh come on, slow down! Oh, what did that stupid bald kid say!? er, Yap-yip! Yippity-yap-yap!"

Unfornutely, no amount of yippityyapping was going to convince the crazed foul to decrease its velocity; and, as if any other scenario could be the end result of running aimlessy around a city notorious for its steep, vertical structure, The animal flew off the edge of some random ledge (hey that rhymed...), the two slipping off of the bird as it dove down to its doom (heh heh, and alliteration, too...).

The Saiyan and girl fell into a convieniently placed wagon of wheat...

Vegeta slowly emerged from the stems, his hair filled with straw, only to come across another sobering sight: right in front of him was a horde of ragged citizens of varying ages, moaning and limping along mindlessly in one direction, their skin covered in red spots, indicating that the entire city had been smited with some sort of...

"PLAGUE! PLAGUE!" a random guard finished Vegeta's thought.

"Huh, a zombie apocalypse, hate to say I told you so..." Mai gloated emotionlessly, her own head popping out of the wheat.

Upon a second survey of the presumed "zombies", the prince observed that most of them didn't seem to be enduring much agony as expressed, as well as the fact that they all happended to be moving in the exact same direction; from this the Saiyan deduced the people were simply feighning a deathly illness, for what reason he did not know.

Vegeta decided it was time to crawl out of the wagon, jerking his pesimistic hostage with him; he paced a few yards and latched one of the "victims" by the back of his shirt.

"You!" the prince began,"What manner of perverted flash-mob is afoot here!?"

The middle-aged gentlemen responded by spinning around grabbed the Saiyan's shoulder."_Shh!_ You'll give us away!" the man pleaded."We're only pretending to be sick so the governer will drive us out of Omashu! The Avatar is in the city! He's orchestrating an ecsape!"

A typical anime expression of suprised played over Vegeta's face_."The Avatar!? Here...!?" he thought-_oops, sorry-he thought."Take me to him!"

"Alright, fine; but you're going to have to look sick too," the man explained, sticking his hand into his pocket and taking out a peculiar little pink octopus-like creature."Here, put this pentupus on your face."

The prince reeled back in horror."WHAT!? Are you insane!? I'm not letting that squishy-thing anywhere NEAR me!" he cried.

"I'll put it on me..." Mai offered, hoping that she really would get poisoned.

The rebel sighed."Listen, pal, I know it's not a very stylish plan, and I'm not too thrilled about it either..." the man was interrupted as the Saiyan rudely brushed passed him, following the people himself.

The Earth Kingdom native shook his head."Freaky-Alien-Genomorph..."

* * *

The Saiyan flowed with the river of humans all the way through the gate, somehow evading a sighting from the distressed guards; if could have been that they were glad to see the "bad firebender" surrounded by the "disease" and payed him no mind, though it did pose a sharp query as to why they would allow the virtual princess of the city to be wisked off with the victims - Vegeta began to wonder if this Mai was really who she claimed to be...

It was nice again night by the time the citizens had decided they werefar enough from the city to settle, camping for the night. Vegeta paced aimlessly through the crowd; some were propping up tents, cooking their dinner, hugging and cheering in light of their parish victory - the Saiyan was also hearing jabber pertaining journying to some grand city, supposedly the last stronghold against the Fire Nation; Vegeta wondered what kind of a city would be so huge as to dwarf the mountian of a town they were just liberated from. There was, eventually, some gossip about the Saiyan himself; as well as his captive, the group echoing with such murmurs as _'Is that who I think it is?'_ or _'Well I'll be an elephant coi in the desert...'_

As his trek proggressed, he noticed a tight gathering of rebels nearby, all eagerly encircling a central object.

_"That must be him..._" Vegeta thought, increasing his pace into the crowd.

Whoever this Avatar was, it made sense that he had something to do with Vegeta's ailment - an individual such as this would obviously feel threatened by the coming of a Super Saiyan, and so would be obliged to use whatever powers at hand and strike him down with somekind of ki-crippling technique in an act of defense. The prince pushed through the wall of man and woman. It ought to be a simple objective, the prince thought, to make a deal with the Avatar in which if he revealed to him the antidote - assuming there was one - Vegeta would assist him in reconquering his planetary empire, and then the Saiyan would simply have his space pod recovered and reapaired and that'd be the end of it; he threw aside the previous imparative of destroying the planet in vengence - he did not want to find out the range of the Avatar's energy-draining ability. As the prince neared the center, his mind danced back to the children that allegedly rescued him the crash; he tightened his cheeks at the prospect ever running into them again...

Oh well, thought the Saiyan, like that was ever going to happen...

"One side, weaklings! I've got an appointment to make!" Vegeta growled, shoving past the last line of people."Well, Avatar, it appears we finally me-"

The pirince froze solid, not one ligament so much as twitching, every single muscular cord within the confines of his physiology literally halting from failure to contract, right down involuntary one such as his lungs and heart.

"...it...it can't be..." he moaned breathlessly, his cerebrum crashing at the moment it put all the pieces together.

The Saiyan slowly raised a shaky finger the individual at the center of the crowd, who was clearly just as suprised to see him, as well as his two friends.

"...n-no, no no NOO!" the Saiyan whaled."IT CAN'T BE YOU! IT JUST CAN'T BE! **YOUR** THE AVATAR!?" he roared, throwing his finger at the young boy.

* * *

_**Who is this mysterious youth that even the Prince of Saiyans is horrified to discover?**_

**Goku: Ooh! Me! Me! I know! *waving his arm***

_**Is he the key to reviving Vegeta's Super Saiyan prowess?**_

**Goku: Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Over hear! *waves both his arms***

_**And who are his friends?**_

**Goku: Aw, comoooon! I _know_ this one! We're on the same channel! *Jumps up and down***

_**Find out, on the next spell-binding chapter of...**_

_**The Cactus Juce Saga!**_

**Goku: It's YUGIOH!**


	6. Dey' See Me Saiyan, Dey' Hatin'

**For those of you wondring if this is going to be a Maigeta, I'd like to tell you fine readers that my stand on shipping is the same as Megabob's - I'm not going to pair a teenage girl with some guy in his mid-thirties. Although it could be argued that Vegeta's preferences regarding age would be broader considering that Saiyans are virtualy ageless, it's because of romance that Vegeta left the Ee-arth (I'm calling the Z Earth that for the sake of distinction) in the first place; I'll alaborate on that as I progress with this story.**

**Speaking of which (and as I usually begin with my other fanfic, **_**The Element of Emerald**_**...) On with the story!**

* * *

_**Last Time, on Dragon Ball Z: The Cactus Juice Saga...!**_

"...n-no, no no NOO!" the Saiyan whaled."IT CAN'T BE YOU! IT JUST CAN'T BE! **YOUR** THE AVATAR!?" he roared, throwing his finger at the young boy.

Sokka stood tranfixed, bewildered at the idea."...What? I'm not the Avatar! Who told you that?"

Vegeta paused, his scowl once again gone; then a tsunami of relief swept the Saiyan away, he kneeled over and sighed loudly, actually laughing a little...

"Aang is," Sokka explained, gesturing to the bald child.

Vegeta stopped laughing...

* * *

The governor and his wife stood out on the balcony as the city once again echoed with a faint, prolonged yell.

"Oh, I hope Tom Tom is alright..." the governor lamented.

"...and Mai too..." his wife added half-heartedly.

The governor shrugged."I guess..."

* * *

Vegeta continued his ear-spliting shreik for a second or two, but was interrupted when Katara happily wrapped her arms around him.

"Vegeta! You're back! I thought we'd never see you again and, and...wow..." she mumbled as she for the first time scanned the Saiyan's toned upper body, her hand grazing his well-defined abdominals.

"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF ME!" the prince roared, violently pushing the girl to the dirt; he threw another wrathful finger, this time at the true Avatar."Alright, I've had it up to my HAIR with you insipid brats and your mind games! What kind of sick game of cat and moose are you playing!? Why don't you just cut the garlic and kill me already!?"

Avatar Aang was clearly alarmed."Vegeta, calm down! I'm not trying to play games with you; all I want is to be your friend." he explained, with a smile that made the boy appear more adorable and harmless than a new-born lambpuppy.

No dictionary in the known universe could describe the murderous, rancorous thoughts fermenting throughout the Saiyans phyche...

"Oh, good, I thought I was the only one who had those..." Mai noted.

For the first time, the trio acknowledged the girl's existence.

"Um, who is this?" Sokka inquired, raising a finger.

The frustrated prince jerked his thumb toward her."Oh, that's just some girl I kidnapped as a hostage when I escaped," Vegeta explained,"She claims to be the governor's daughter, but no one seems to care enough to save her..."

"...or, at least not shoot fire at me..." Mai added.

"Wait, I know you..." Katara recalled, rising to her feet and zealously repressing the memory of Vegeta ever pushing her, rationalizing that she simply tripped over a rock; yes, how clumsy she was..."You're that girl those Earth Kingdom rebels ambushed."

_"woot!"_ sounded one of the perpatrators in the crowd. pumping his fist up high.

"And you're with the Avatar; small world, huh?" the goth replied, crossing her unknowable arms."Can I have my baby brother back now?"

_" 'Brother'?" the three-_er, dangit!-the three turned their attention to the small infant coicidentally seated next to Aang.

"No way! This is your brother?" Katara queried.

"Uh, yeah, I just said that..." Mai reminded.

"Guys, are you getting this!? We have _both_ of the governor's children! Do you know what this means!?" Sokka had an idea.

The Avatar scratched his chin for a moment..."That, we're going to have to return them to their parents and apologize for the mix-up?" he guessed.

Vegeta, Sokka, Mai, and all the Earth Kingdom rebels stared at the boy as if he had grown a beard, an owl crowing somewhere out in the distance...

"What? I think it's a great plan," Katara chirped.

Vegeta and Sokka slammed to the ground anime-style.

"Man that smarts..." the teen groaned, rising to a sitting position and rubbing the back of his sore head.

"You'll get used to it..." Vegeta replied, just sitting.

Mai paced over to the infant, and took him up in her sleeves (Seriously, where are her arms!?); she was still placid."Yeah, well, I think what your friend was going to say was that you guys could make somekind of deal where you'd trade me and Tom Tom over for something, like food, or gold..." she vocalized.

"...or my clothes..." the half-naked Saiyan threw in.

"Really?" the Avatar understood,"I dunno, that sounds like something the Fire Nation would do..." he said, looking at his shoes.

"What the Fire Nation would do..." began the resistance leader, who was honestly just standing there idly for five minutes not saying a word until at this very moment,"is dress them up in enemy clothing and put them out on the front line, and then they'd _watch_," he emphasized, gaining the forseen reaction."Right now, this trade could be our only oppertunity to rescue the king..."

Vegeta perked up."The king?"

The Avatar turned to him."Yeah, King Bumi."

The Saiyan was utterly flabbergasted; his pupils rolled into his head, and his body once again slapped onto the earth, out cold.

* * *

After Vegeta regained conscousness, the plan was initiated. The Avatar's pet flying lemur was used as a messenger to deliver a letter containing the details for the trade; coincindentally, the Fire Nation governor had sent a hawk with a messege of its own, and the two flying animals had a bit of an arial skirmish after soaring into eachother in the dead of night, unbeknownst to either party.

It was decided that the Avatar, his friends, and Vegeta would go alone and meet with the negotiators next morning at an elevated construction site of some statue, the project posponed for that day for obvious reasons.

As they walked along the wood platforming, staring onward with determinaton, Sokka felt it the best time to broach the question...

"Vegeta, how long extactly do you plan to wander around with no clothes on in public?"the teen expressed what was itching him all morning, pushing the restrained Mai along.

"As long as I have to..." the Saiyan, still in his underpants, replied ambitiously, not looking at him.

Katara threw a scowl at her brother."Sokka, will you wind down? Vegeta doesn't have to wear a shirt if he doesn't want to..." she snapped sofly as she ever so subtly fingered the prince's imressive right biceps, though the warrior payed her no mind.

"You know, Vegeta, you don't have to do this..."the Avatar said, wearing a make-shift hat to conceal his arrow; he was carrying the infant,"As a space-alien, you're a neutral by default; you have no obligation to ally with either side of this War..."

Sokka glared angrily at the sky in exasperation

The prince snorted."These lowly maggots declared war on the Saiyan race the moment they removed my gloves..." the warror hissed with malice,"Just pipe down and focus on the mission at hand..."

"kinda' hard to do that when my baby sister's playing with some pretzo's muscles right in my face..." Sokka grumbled behind his teeth.

The bald child _shush_'ed audibly.

As they neared the two individuals on the other end of the platform, Vegeta's keen eye was the first to pick up something off - both of them were teenaged girls, no older than their negative hostage.

_"Wait a mintute, they sent a couple of girls to oversee the exange? What, are they part of this girl's fraternity? Do children just rule the world!?"_

The one on the right was barely clothed in short pink skirt and something between a tanktop and a braw, also pink, to cover just enough of her chest to make boys curious; her sleeves and legs were draped with some transparent cloth which was a much lighter shade of pink, completing her all-pink wardrobe; she had a long, braided pony tail and a perky smile on her face; she also happened to be carrying a certian blure suit of armor, neatly folded in her arms. The one on the left cotrasted significantly: she opted to don a kind of dark red armor/dress hybrid that covered her whole body, minus her hands, which were tippped with long, sharp fingernails. Her jet black hair was neatly wrapped and tightened as to have not a single hair out of place, with the exception of a pair of long bangs dangling infront of her ears, so finely snipped as to seem they could be used as deadly weapons. On the crown of her head was tied a tight topknot with a golden headpiece shaped like a small flame. Like the first girl, her lipstick-covered mouth gave way to a definate smile, only hers was more akin to an tenacious smirk, not unlike that of a Saiyan, complete with piercing golden eyes; her entire heir was that of both intimidation and dominance. It was by now the prince realized two things: this girl in particular truly did hold a profound position in world politics - the kind of position that determines the fate of the planet itself. The other thing was the realization that her eyesight had to be as keen as the Saiyan's, for she was currently sizing him up as well, inevitibly reaching his own eyes - the two of them were locked in visual combat...

"Hiya, Mai!" the perkier-looking one called merrily, waving her arms.

It was this that actually seemed to unerve the goth, the makings of a grimace dissettling her usual frown."Please kill me now; they're only here for the baby..."

"I'll make a note of that..." Vegeta responded mindlessly.

The two parties stopped their pace, still at least a few dozen yards from eachother. As this happened, a crane at the top of the scaffolding, lowered an annoyingly familiar metal box; it somehow spun around, revealing the cackling face of King Bumi.

"Well, well, Space-Man! I knew that _weed _run into eachother again!" the geezer sounded.

A visble twitch from the Saiyan..."...and while I'm at it, I'll probably borrow one of your knives..." he said to Mai.

"Do you have our friend?" the intimidating girl called retoricly.

"She's right here." answered the poorly diguised Avatar.

"Yaaaaay!" The pink girl cheered, preparing to dash over to her friend, when suddenly, the red girl snatched her by her hair braid.

"Not so fast, Ty Lee..." the evil one remarked calmly, turning back to the other side,"We want Mai to walk to us! Alone and un-shackled!"

The four looked at eachother; Vegeta nodded.

Sokka then cut the rope restraining the girl, and backed away; though, strangely, even though completely free, the girl didn't move.

"...Well? Go on, you're free now," Sokka reminded.

Mai crossed her arms and looked in a different way."Like I'm walking all the way over there just so Azula can draft me into some slumber-party hit-squad..." she responded drolly.

The red girl giggled."Oh-ho, Mai, you see right through me!" she cried bashfully, flinging her hand.

"A-who-la?" Vegeta inquired.

"Azula: the really scary-looking girl in red; she's the princess of the Fire Nation," the goth explained.

Katara's eyes widened."She's the princess? But, that would make her..."

"Zuko's sister..." Sokka finished with a scowl of his own, though it wasn't nearly as cool as Vegeta's.

"Yep, she's probably here to get me to help her hunt him down or that kinda' crap..." Mai comtinued.

The Saiyan in question once again swapped his own glare for a quizzical look._" 'Azula' ? 'Zuko'? What kind of names are those? I thought we were fighting an Asian monarch, not the Italian mafia!"_

"For your information, 'Azula' is an exeedingly Japanese name! It simply sounds Western due to the emphasis on the second syllable!"

Vegeta paled."Did she just read my mind?"

"No, just your facial expression; it's not very difficult with those big eyes of yours..." Mai said."Doesn't matter, I'm still not going anywhere..."

"Awww, c'mon, Mai, what did Azula ever do for you to have such a black aura around her!?" the girl named "Ty Lee" asked naivly.

The goth rolled her dull eyes."Oh gee, let me put it in chronological order:..." she began counting with her fingers,"There was the time Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation and you made no effort to defend him, the time you used my pet lambpuppy as target practice for your lightningbending, the time you convinced the whole nation I was an airbender just because I cut you in line in the caffeteria, the time you planted a cabbage slug into the boat before we left for Omashu - I_ know_ that was you - or how'bout just yesterday, when I was kidnapped in the first place?"

Azula crossed her arms."Please, that last one was completely out of my power..."

Mai shot a death-glare."He ran right past you."

_**The previous morning...**_

_Azula was casually enaging in her usual morning jog, wearing lighter clothing and a headband, humming Eye of the Tiger-dillo to herself, when out of nowhere, a deranged screaming man in his underwear mounted atop a flaming ostrichhorse blew by her, her best friend dangling over his back, followed by a group of soldiers on komodorhinos._

_Azula took all this into account...but shrugged and decided to jog in the opposite direction..._

_**Back to the present...**_

Azula shrugged in a similar manner."I didn't want to get involved in your business..." she explained innocently.

Sokka raised an eyebrow."And, she's your best friend because?"

"Because I'm the faceless accessory to a decedent puppet government..." Mai replied matter of factly.

"Of course you are," Azula agreed patronizingly," Now come over here like a good little pawn..." she gestured with her fingers, like a woman to a dog.

Mai sighed."Fine, but I'm the one who gets to kill Zuko," she finalized as she slowly paced across the platform.

The Avatar smiled eagerly, holding Vegeta's bare shoulder."Isn't this great, Vegeta? Soon Mai will be returned to her family, and then we'll have Bumi to come with us on our adventures!"

At that very split-second, it was as if time stopped, the horrific realization finally manifesting itself before his eyes. The Saiyan's imagination was bombarded by nightmares pertaining to happy sing-a-longs and bad vegetable jokes while trapped on a flying bison for potentialy the rest of his life...

Vegeta blinked...**"NOOOOOOO!"** the prince swung his fist into Mai's temple, knocking her out instantly.

"Vegeta, what a-!" the bald child could not fully accentuate his shock as the Saiyan snatched the baby from his hands, allowing the infant to dangle by his leg; Vegeta then produced a ki ball in his free hand, holding it dangrously close to the child's head.

"That's it! I've had enough of this ignorance!" Vegeta announce, his own voice trembling in a mixture a fear and rage," If I don't see my armor on this side of the platform in the next ten seconds, the boy dies! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?" the area echoed as the prince finished his rant...

The atmosphere dripped with raw silence; the Aang, Katara, and Sokka stood there hunched with their mouths hung open; Azula, Ty Lee, and Bumi were both like statues...

"...ooookay then..." Azula broke the silence with a clap of her hands,"I suppose the deals off; take the king back!" she commanded whoever was managing the crane, the metal box raising into the air; Ty Lee then sadly turned around, taking the Saiyans battlesuit with her.

"That does it! I warned you...!" the prince reminded, preparing to carry out his threat. But, for some reason, when he turned his attention to the infant, his focus at that juncture seemed to take an alternate direction. The Saiyan watched the child in his hand; though it hung helplessly with its ankle betwixt the merciless warrior, the boy actually started giggling as babies do, seemingly entertained by the ball of light. Vegeta was puzzled: this sight wasn't so much uncommon in the life of a former space-mercenary; in fact, it usually annoyed him, but now...Vegeta felt...a sort of eaze of mind - the first in days now. As Vegeta peered at the child, his tiny fingers ever trying to grapple the ki ball, he couldn't help but admit to himself this boy reminded him of the previous planet, of quiet times, of an easier life, of a bed to sleep on, of...

...of his own infant son...

"WHAT THE HECK. MAN!?" screamed the voice of Sokka.

The Saiyan was jerked back to reality; he whipped his head to the left to see the teen.

"What's wrong with you!? We were about to have _him _AND your clothes back!" Sokka plainly explained.

"Huh?" the prince tunred back in front of him, seeing the two girls leaving, taking his suit with them.

"No! My armor!" Vegeta cried, shoving the baby into Sokka's chest, but not too hard as to hurt the child. He made a mad dash for the girls.

Azula pausd in her walking, her lipstick-coverd lips once again curled into a smirk as she heard footsteps rushing toward her.

"Come and get it..." she mumbled before wheeling around and shooting a **blue** stream of fire out from her fingertips; the Saiyan countered the incoming projectile with a recharged ki ball; the two missles collided, creating a haze of smoke, which Vegeta dramaticly lept out of, cocking his fist as he plunged for the firebender. The princess side-stepped just before his fist made a hole through the reinforced wood. Thr girl bobbed out of the way of Vegeta's other fist. and countered with a flaming claw, which Vegeta parried with his previous hand and seized her up by the throat, prompting her to grab the Saiyan's forearm with both hands and heated them up, forcing him to cringe in pain and drop her; the moment he let go, the princess kicked him in the stomach with both legs, the prince stumbling a few feet back. Before the Saiyan could charge her again, he blocked a flying kick from the pink-clad girl, the two engaing in a brief exchange of blows before backflipping apart from eachother.

"Man, this is gettin' good..." Bumi remarked.

"Interesting," Azula began cooly, feeling her bruised neck,"you're not as much a novice as those guards painted you to be; I'll be sure to punish them for their underestimation. I still, however, doubt you'll be able to take down Ty Lee so easily..."

"Is that a fact?" Vegeta smirked, charging a ki ball in each hand and hurling them at Ty Lee, who nimbly bent to avoid both light-balls, though there were more where those came from...

The children witnessed the spectacle with suprisingly placid expressions, as if they were merely watching ice-skating, of course Katara's was more provocative.

"Ssso, he seems like he's in trouble; shouldn't we, ya know, be helping him...somehow?" Sokka wondered...

"I guess...We could call Appa...or something..." Aang considered.

"Yeah, that's right, bend over and tighten those buns..." Katara fantizised.

"I'm going to ignore that..." Sokka tolerated.

"Grr! Stop dodging!" the Saiyan growled, throwing ball after ball of ki at the gymnist, who leaned and weaved and evaded each one.

"Stop dodging!" the prince yelled, increasing his rate of ki throwing into a full-fledge energy ball volley; though the girl flipped and twirled in mid-air, not a single ball so mush as grazing her clothes.

"STOP DOOOODGIIIIIIIING!" Vegeta roared, gathering up a large ki orb between both hands, and launched at the girl. Petrafied, the acrobat swung her leg upward, actually kicking the orb far above her; it exploded against the chain suspending the old king; Bumi plummeted down into a stone shoot, sliding down the path. The prince stood there stupafied, before the girl somersaulted behind him and threw a series of precise jabbs all over his back and joints, the Saiyan tripping onto the wooden floor.

The Avatar saw this."Welp', that's ma _cue_!" he announced as he opened his staff into an orange glider; he tossed the bison signal to Sokka."Here, you call Appa while do something brash and naive that will inevitibly reveal my indentity as the Avatar!"

The princess perked up."The Ava-who-now?"

The nomad winced."I said out loud, didn't I?" he noticed before taking off for his friend, the princess rushing after him.

"Well, at least you didn't dodge that one..." the warrior lamented, flat on his bare back; Vegeta then made to push himself back up with a his arms, but, mysteriously, he could not do that; in fact, the Saiyan soon found out all of his limbs weren't working, remaning unresponsive no matter how hard he willed them to move."Wha? What's going on!?"

The gymnist flipped on top of him, her knees on his abdomen."I blocked your chi! You won't be able to use it for a while..." she explained happily.

"You WHAT!?" the prince sheiked."Do have ANY idea how long it took me to regain my energy!?"

The acrobat cocked her head to her left."Aw, you seem upset; I know how to cheer you up...!" she announced, wiggling her dexterous fingers; she then preceded to gently but rapidly graze har fingers against vegeta's exposed sides.

Vegeta was confused; though, for some unknown reason, a smile unaturaly crept along his face."Wha? W-wait a minute, what're you doing-wha-we-u-erheh-heh what-hehheheheh-stop-heh-stop it!- heh HaHaHaHa! Cut that out-HAHAHAHAHA! STOP!-AHAHAHHAHAHA!-I'LL KILL YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'LL SLAUGHTER YOUR WHOLE FAMILY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Katara's smile vanished."Hey! No one touches my man that way!" she announce, whipping out a water tendrill from her pouch and launching at the gymnist. The tendrill wrapped around the acrobat's neck, and cataputled her far over the waterbender, soaring clean off the platform - an act that, were it not TV-Y7, would most likely have killed her, if not rendered her comatose and confined to the misreble, ironic life of spending the remainder of your days as a living vegetable._  
_

Katara huffed."Okay, I'll take Mai and Tom Tom while you get Vegeta," she ordered, taking the infant in her arm while lifting the goth with her water tentacle.

The Saiyan grunted and heaved all he could, his body was almost as useless as Raditz. He managed at best to turn his head to the right, and that's when he saw it: his armor, lying on the ground within arm's length of his body; if only he could _move_ his arm!. _"No, I will not stand for this!" _Closing out all awareness of his surroundings, the prince diverted all voluntary and involuntary brain power to the sole task of schooching his right arm outward. _"Yes! I can feel it! My arm is sliding against the wood! And my left arm as well!...And, my legs...and...my back...?" _Vegeta finally opened one eye to check his progress as well as this strange sensation; all he saw was his armor gradually moving faurther away from him; wait, no, no the armor was just lying there, it was _he_ who was moving - dragged in fact, by none other than Sokka.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" the Saiyan cried out to the teen as he hauled him away, as if Sokka were committing some act of insanity.

The bony young man grunted."Relax! I'm taking you to Appa; there's no reason to stay hear."

"But, my armor! NO! TURN AROUND, DARN YOU! I'M NOT LEAVING MY ARMOR BEHIND!" Vegeta roared, in a fit of wrath and angst, mentally thrashing around in depsration.

"There's no time!" Sokka reasoned, him and his sister tugging his limp body onto the bison's saddle, a squad of firebenders forcing the beast to take off as soon as the three were mounted

"NNOOOOOOO! MY PREECIIIIOOOOUUUS!" the prince whaled futily as his beloved suit faded out of sight...

* * *

Vegeta lied there, still paralized and undressed, with the rest of the children - including the Avatar - as the bison sailed away from the grand city, the prince wearing the most malice-drenched expression yet...

"Don't be upset, Vegeta," the bald child began, guiding Appa,"I sorry we couldn't get your space-suit back; but look on the bright-side, at least you have your health. And who says you need special clothes to define who you are?" he recited with a sweet smile.

The warriors glare ceased to waver."The moment I can move my limbs, you'll be the first to die."

"Can I be the second?" the currently tied up Mai threw in."I think I'm gonna be stuck with these guys for a while..." she said, well aware she was preaching to the space-quire.

"Aang's right, Vegeta..." with the waterbender agreed sofly, tightly hugging the Saiyan's bare arm,"we like you just the way you are..." she cooed, rubbing her cheek against his burly shoulder.

Vegeta closed his eyelids shut."...please stop touching me..." he said even softer.

Sokka shook his head."Man, you really had us there: I thought you were gonna do it..." he lamented, cradling the infant."Guess you're not as cold-blooded as we thought..." the teen added with a little sarcasm.

The Saiyan turned his glare over to Sokka, but it inevitibly sunk down to the child in his arms, still playing with his bone boomerang; his sharp stare dulled."Yes, well...just wanted my armor back..."

"It's just a shame we couldn't get through the deal smoothly; I never wanted this to happen..." the Avatar continued glumly.

"What do you expect, boy? It's war; count it grace thay they're still alive..." Vegeta replied, still with definate edge.

"I dunno, kidnapping? That's just not my thing."

Vegeta turned back to the child, now trying to catch that white monkey thing by its tail; as he crawled about, he stopped to look up at the crippled Saiyan with pure eyes...

The princes pupils trembled; he shut them tight."Doh fine, we'll give the baby back, but the girl stays!" he concluded.

"That's alright; I was only thinking about the baby too..."The Avatar replied.

"Shouldn't of expected otherwise..." Mai cracked.

The airbender's head arose, apparently recalling something."Hey, Vegeta, I just remembered! Before I left Bumi, he wanted me to tell you about the eight-sixth jin..."

The prince's eyelids reopened, at their own peril "Eighty-sixth jin? What eighty-sixth jin?"

Aang turned his head halfway toward the warrior, his eyebrow cocked as a sly smirk grew between his cheeks."Saiya-jin."

The bison's flight into the horizon was complemented by a enraged scream that resonated across the plains.


	7. A Funky Fresh Chapter With a Twistter

A crimson pontiac thundered down the street, three other muscle cars hot on its trial.

Iroh, wearing a brown overcoat and a black undershirt peered out the window."Faster, Zuko! They're gaining on us!"

Zuko, his head adorned with an oversized afro and donned in a white unbuttoned shirt and a purple undershirt, gritted his teeth as he clenched the leather steering wheel."Man, whatchoo think I'm tryina do!?"

The persuing muscle car in front rolled down its passenger window, revealing a man wearing a ski mask who pulled out a .45 pastol and began firing.

"Aw, hell-naw! Suckas' ain't scuffin' up _dis _ride!" Zuko cried furiously, spinning the steering wheel left and right rapidly, forcing the car to swerve through downtown traffic to evade their attackers.

Coming up onto a threeway intersection, Zuko jerked the wheel to the right as hard as he could, the car violently screeching aside, bashing clean through a random cabbage cart as its owner dove out of the way.

"Sweet easta'..." the merchant marvelled as he sat their on the pavement.

The enemy car attampted the same stunt, but he wasn't fast enough, resulting the rear car slamming into its side both of them crashing through a jewelry store.

The third musclecar was still on their track; the upper window flipped open as another masked thug arose from the opening, aiming his AK-47 at the target and unleashing a round of bullets.

"Take da wheel, Mushi; dis fool be askin for it..." Zuko commanded as he opened the driver door.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Nephew..." Iroh replied with concern, worming into the driver's seat.

Zuko climbed up on the top of his ride, standing upright and facing the gunmen; he lepted in the air with his left foot extended, allowing the man's nose to smack against the heel of Zuko's boot.

Zuko rolled onto the ground smoothly; the driver jerked the car around as a desperate attempt to runover the teen.

"Benda please," the scarred bounty hunter scoffed, whipping out his signature magnum pistol and fired a sure shot that nailed the man square in the head; the car swerved past Zuko and crashed into an ice cream truck: no one was hurt, except the ice cream truck.

Zuko shook his head."Brothas ain't knowin who deyz messin with; m, Agni ha mercy..."

* * *

**XD! I Dunno why I wrote that...!**

* * *

Moving on to the plot, we transition to see Appa gliding casually over a broad swamp-based landscape.

"Okay, here's what I'm thinking..." The Avatar began,"We fly back go to the Northern Air Temple where Teo's dad helps build a new spaceship; then we travel to that planet with all the flying people; and _then _we bring back all sorts of technology and revolutionary agricultrural techniques, and bring them before the Fire Lord; and he's so amazed that he decides to end the hundred-year War in order to establish a coalition between the two worlds," he explained.

Vegeta rolled his eyes."Child, if you honestly expect aliens to solve all your problems, you've obviously never seen 'Godzilla: Final Wars'," he dissmissed, recalling another film that that Kakarot's short bald friend, who now that he thought about it oddly bears a signififcant resemblance to his arrow-headed captor, convinced him to watch.

Still recovering from the tragic loss of his Saiyan armor, the prince was forced to make a sustitute: he decided to try on the clothing Sokka wore during the previous winter season (much to Sokka's desdain), clad in a dark blue tribal garment that enveloped his entire body (much to Katara's disappointment), as well as a pair of old but sterdy boots and beige torso armor that he "borrowed" from one of the Earth Kingdom rebels (no seriously, he asked permission and they lended it to him). He had long strips of white cloth tightly wrapped around his forearms, which aslo covered his palms and the back of his hands, making the strenuous compromise of leaving his fingers exposed (you know, like Rock Lee?). In stark contrast, their sunlight draining hostage, Mai, upon Vegeta discovering the multitude of blades and darts hidden beneath her baggy clothing, was prompted to strip the girl down to a pair of brown raggish under garments (which Sokka took little issue with). But, parenthises aside...

"Still can you imagine how wonderful that would be?" the waterbender dreamed,"to actually go out there; out through the stars, exploring other planets and life and ethnicities...the passionate, undisturbed love we could mak-I mean, um, Bagels! Yes, heh, think of all the lovely bagels we could make! Yes, bagels is what I meant, heh heh..._mmmm, bagels..._" she breathed, resting her chin in her palm thoughtfully.

Indeed, the Saiyan was becoming weary of these children's on-going fantasies about space traveling, much less the waterbender's prevailing obsession towards the Saiyan's body; and on a rather ironic note, the stubborn unbelief of the novice warroir wasn't growing in him either. not like building a ship was even an option; Vegeta doubted this world's top brains could even comprehend a lightbulb, nevermind a space pod...

"But only after we stop by the planet where you reastablish your _grip on reality_!" Sokka squawked in a fit of frustration.

"And a twenty thousand pound buffalo that can fly just by flapping its tail is realistic?" queried the indecently dressed goth.

"Hey, I never said it was _this _planet..." the boy remarked.

And, if such a possibility a ship already was in the process of assembly, there certianly was zero chance of anyone accompanying him, let alone allow said craft to be big enough for more than one person. Vegeta gazed up beyond the clouds: how wonderfull was the thought, soaring through the atmosphere, sailing back into the cosmos, escaping the insanity of this rock at last; perhaps his power would rush back to him at the very instant, and then he'd just blow up this cursed planet. No, no he would just leave, let these children continue their shamble of a resistance, only to run broken and destroyed by their inevitible failure, and pay for their attempts to vanquish the Prince.

Alas, all this now appeared as likely as Kakarot coming back from the dead and earning a Ph. D. in quantum physics; his hopes of ever making it off this world were now more crushed than ever before...

It was at that moment that the turbulent winds that accompanied flight were starting subside; the Saiyan leaned over the edge of the saddle; using the ground as a measurement, he not only deduced that the bison was slowing down, but also descending closer to the swamp.

Vegeta turned to the Avatar, who was peering down into the swamp mindlessly.

"Hey! Airbender! Mind the reighns!"

The bald child snapped out of his transe."Huh? Mind who's reighns?" he turned to Vegeta.

"Care to explain why we're loosing altitude?" the Saiyan demanded.

The Avatar blinked."What? I didn't even notice..." he admitted.

"Are you noticing now?" Vegeta gestured outward, Sokka much too distracted by Mai to make the comment himself.

Aang returned his attention to the swamp." I know this is gonna sound weird, but...I think the swamp is...calling to me..." he tried to explain.

"Is it telling you to give me my clothes back?" the goth asked.

The Saiyan snorted."Good luck with _that _road, sister..."

"No, I...I think it wants us to land there..." Aang lipped, as if he didn't believe what he was saying.

Frankly, neither did Vegeta."And perhaps _I _want to annihilate the planet; we all have to compromise at some point..." he retorted.

"I don't know..." Aang struggled,"Bumi said to learn earthbending I would have to wait and listen; and now I'm actually _hearing _the earth..." he then smiled giddily to himself,"I also can't get that 'eighty-sixth jin' joke outta my head..."

Vegeta rolled his eyes: he was still trying to."Look, boy, do you think you can resist your mud fetish long enough to managed your animal? I already have enough sensual tension radiating from your two friends, now pull back up and focus!" he commanded the boy.

The Avatar's smiled vanished."Okay, I guess since you feel so strongly about this...bye, swamp..." he wipped Appa's reighns,"Yip-Yip!" he cried, compelling the beast to reascend and pick up some speed.

Vegeta glared."And would you kindly seize with the tornado? You're not making me feel guilty..."

"Tornado?" Sokka questioned; he then suddenly heard a loud wirling noise behind him; he turned to the opposite direction to see the source of the sound: an enormous spiraling behemoth, barreling straight for the bison at a terrifying speed, shredding up the swamp forestry as it went.

Sokka blinked."Oh, that tornado..." he said in a perfectly calm and casual tone; he then turned back around and returned to his sitting positon as if he saw nothing, sitting there quietly...

...

...

...

...His expression perked up."**TORNADO!?" **he shreiked, right before they were all devoured by the spinning giant. The montserous winds immediately tore the five from the bison, sending them all screaming ( except Mai, who had her amrs crossed) down into the swamp, kicking up dust clouds respectively.

* * *

Vegeta's head sprang out of the murky surface, inhaling loudly; the Saiyan arose to his feet out from the shallow water, surveying the environment. The Saiyan whiped off most of the mud from his makeshift armor, noting that, despite the violent ordeal, he bore no injury whatsoever. Naturally, this knowladge made him smirk.

"Hah! Is that all you go-!" right before being flattened under Appa's grand blubber, the ten ton bison having slammed right on top of him, the lemur quietly perching atop his horn.

A muffled grunt of agony muttered beneath the animal's belly.


End file.
